Linux killer!

[Patrick Nelson]

malcolm wrote:

> I work in a school and we are thinking about Linux
> I put some test machines out - Fedora, Suse and Ubuntu
> The view of the students was Fedora was the best ..great so far
> Then we did the KDE v Gnome thing - Gnome won ... even better
> Then I asked the question  - so what do you think of Linux ?
> 'It sucks ! ' was the almost universal response ( students aged 11 to 
> 18 )
> Why I asked .. It never falls over, XP dies all the time ... true they 
> said
> OO is just like Office to use and doesn't munge up documents .. also 
> true they said
> It will save the school £20000 per year, so why does it suck
>
> Because we can't watch Yahoo music videos   and that was it - Ok I did 
> point out that
> they weren't suppose to be watching them at all really but that 
> doesn't cut much ice with
> teenagers. So the problem is this - I am never going to get this off 
> the ground if I don't have
> the support of the kids. Windows Media is my Linux killer - 
> Codeweavers are OK but
> only support WMP 6.4 - I've never got gxine to work properly and the 
> Linux version of Real Player
> won't do the 'universal player' trick that the Windows one does.
>
> Even the most angst ridden teenager admitted that 99% of Linux was 
> better than the Windows
> equivalent but not one of them wanted to use it simply because of the 
> lack of Windows Media plugins

If it is not allowed then you should support the policy and not allow 
it.  That said, technically speaking:

You could use the new VMware Player and create a controlled XP instance 
that you copy to these FedoraCore systems.  I've got the Linux VMware 
Player but I've only used the Windows version (to show people the 
benefits of FC4 on their work system).  But it is really easy to use and 
might be technical solution. 

However, I think the enforcement of policy is your real problem.  If you 
not going to enforce it...  Then why did you create the policy to begin 
with?  To show the kids that they can pick and choose what policies suit 
them?  That will be a big epiphany for them when they try that in the 
work place.